ENERGY

WPPSS Settlement OKd: The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals approved a settlement of the nation’s largest municipal bond default, agreeing to give partial payment to holders of $2.25 billion in defaulted bonds. The settlement would pay about $800 million to investors who bought bonds sold to help finance two Washington state nuclear power plants that were never completed. The plants, commissioned in 1976 by the Washington Public Power Supply System, or WPPSS, were abandoned in January, 1982, after cost overruns and the release of studies showing the power would not be needed to meet the Northwest’s energy needs.